To call your attention to interesting photography related on the web... and to show off some of my photographic work... is there another reason for a blog?

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

NYC Calling all cars: Photography still legal

FREEDOM OF PRESS/Calling all cars: Photography still legal/Source: National Press Photographers Association

New York City area photographers achieved a victory of sorts in March againstMetropolitan Transportation Authority police officers when the New York CivilLiberties Union threatened a lawsuit against MTA if their officers continued totry to stop photography on the subways, Long Island Railroad, and Metro Northtrains. The threatened suit brought about a written concession from MTA'sgeneral counsel that there is "no ban on photography," but not until afterseveral photographers were harassed and threatened with arrest.

Over the past couple of months there has been an increase in the number ofcomplaints from photographers, both press and civilian, alleging that police -mostly MTA officers - were threatening to arrest them for taking pictures inpublic places, telling photographers that "photography is illegal."

The NYCLU wrote to MTA following the string of complaints, to which MTAresponded by requesting that "any photo activities get their 'prior approval.' "NPPA Region 2 associate director Todd Maisel, who is also vice president of theNew York Press Photographers Association and a staff photographer at the NewYork Daily News, responded to MTA officials by saying that he "would never seektheir approval to take photographs in a public place."

... Catherine Rinaldi, general counsel and deputy executive director for MTA,conceded in a March letter to photographers that there is "no ban on photographyin the Long Island Railroad or the Metro North Transit system." The concessioncame after NYCLU attorneys wrote to MTA demanding that they explain why MTAofficers were threatening photographers with arrest for taking pictures inpublic areas of the transit system.

SPJ PressNotes for Wednesday, 4-5-06PressNotes is edited by Robert Kerr, Assistant Professor in the Gaylord Collegeof Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Kerr may bereached at: RKerrSPJ@gmail.com <mailto:RKerrSPJ@gmail.com>

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